Creationism IS a 'Cult'ural Movement!

Having just listened to Sam Harris's presentation in the Beyond Belief seminars (great stuff there BTW Percy, and thanks for the links), I have to concede that the fundies just might have a teeny little point here.And if Harris can gratuitiously extrapolate from the undoubted danger posed by fundamnetalists to all non-materialistic belief systems, aren't the fundamentalists equally justified in extrapolating the threat posed by the Sam Harrises of this world to all scientists?

OK sorry about this. I meanst Christians not fundamentalists, and the threat is to Christianity, not science. As Krause said, its hard not to agree with much of what Harris says. But its also clear that he does not limit his objections to religion to those cases where it conflicts with science: or rather, he denies the possibility of anything that is not science, and therefore leaves no room for belief.Some quotes:"I'm very much a fan of construing the conflict between religion and science in zero-sum terms""I really think religion is leading us to the edge of something terrible"(equating Catholic fath in transubstantiation to lunacy)"If there were good reasons to believe that Jesus was born of a virgin, or will be coming back to Earth to judge the living and the dead, these beliefs would be part of our scientific description of the Universe. These are claims about Physics, claims about Biology. The only reason that a person needs faith to accept these things is that the evidence for them is remarkably thin. So I really think that religion is the permission to one another to believe things strongly when reasons fail...."
(NB: I think he meant to say "when reason fails" here)."There are some people who argue that there is no conflict betweem science and religion. Here is how the trick is done""The best in us does not require the worst in us. The love of other human beings does not need to be nurtured by delusion, and yet we are hearing continuously from every corner of our culture that delusion is all we have, that delusion deserves our respect, delusion is holy"and later:"How much more science does Francis Collins need to have on board before he doubts that Jesus is the Son of God and will return to save humanity?"Not that I hold any brief for Collins, of course. But I do feel myself under threat from this statement, as I happen to be a scientist who also believes in Christ, although this belief isn't supported in any way by material evidence.Don't get me wrong. I enjoyed his presentation as much as I enjoyed Weinberg's and Tyson's. But when even Weinberg feels compelled to say "I'm more sanguine than you about American religion" ... wow, there's a man with an agenda.Edited by duf31, : Correct typo Carroll -> Collins

Hope you don't mind me quoting you out of sequence Percy: You can say that again. As any reasonable person would be. But he is equally opposed to those that do neither, and does not present any justification other than that they do not fit into his belief system and therefore should be locked up. End-time prophets are everywhere! Perhaps atheism IS a religion after all.

Hi Modulous, our posts must have crossed. I have yet to find the time to get beyond the second session of those videos, so I can't comment on this. Interesting that he felt the need to "clarify his position" though. As I said, I enjoyed Harris's presentation and agreed with most of his points. However he was a bit extreme on some of them, and sounded more like a creationist waxing lyrical than a scientist.